S03.E05: FBI–Apple Encryption Dispute

[tenativelyyours]

Solid episode but the Apple ad at the end was gold.  Pure beautiful gold.  So rich and pure Glenn Beck would do a commercial for it.

[hertolo]

He kinda missed the point with the small piece on the Swiss President by bleeping the translation over the speech. The joke mainly was about our Federal Councillor (=President) not understanding what he was reading out in French. It cements the clichee of the debile maternal language Swiss German who can't be bothered to learn French. And why did they not translate "Tag der Kranken" into "Day for the Sick"? Taking the German title seems the strangest choice in a piece about a French speech?

 

Haven't seen the rest of the show yet (the clip of Oliver dissing our president has already landed on a website here), maybe tonight :)

Edited March 14, 2016 by hertolo

[peeayebee]

He kinda missed the point with the small piece on the Swiss President by bleeping the translation over the speech. The joke mainly was about him not understanding what he was reading out in French. It cements the clichee of the debile German-speaking Swiss who can't be bothered to learn French. 

I didn't know that. Did I miss John saying this? 

[hertolo]

No, i'm just providing more context as I am Swiss :)

[tenativelyyours]

All I got was John was poking fun at a speech on the health benefits of laughter being read by a man whose face was grimmer than Marco Rubio's last Tuesday.

[Eliza422]

He kinda missed the point with the small piece on the Swiss President by bleeping the translation over the speech. The joke mainly was about him not understanding what he was reading out in French. It cements the clichee of the debile German-speaking Swiss who can't be bothered to learn French. And why did they not translate "Tag der Kranken" into "Day for the Sick"? Taking the German title seems the strangest choice in a piece about a French speech?

 

Haven't seen the rest of the show yet (the clip of Oliver dissing our president has already landed on a website here), maybe tonight :)

I was wondering about that. I'm certainly no French or German speaker (thanks American schooling system) but I thought it was the strangest sounding thing. In my mind I was like, is that what French speaking Swiss people sound like??? I couldn't wrap my head around it!

Thanks for the insider info!

[Mockingbird]

John as Lindsey Graham going, "I am your boss," had me laughing much harder than I should have been laughing. 

[futurechemist]

I thought this week's main topic on encryption was a lot more interesting than last week's segment on special districts.  Though it did get me thinking, what happens if a normal person forgets their iPhone password and gets locked out?  Does Apple have a manual key they can use once a person proves their ID and phone ownership?  Or is the only option to just wipe all data and restore the phone to factory settings?

[mjc570]

I liked this week's episode much more than I thought I would.  I was supportive of Apple, but now I understand why.  That humorless Swiss guy, talking about the therapeutic benefits of laughter, was great. 

 

My major problem with the show is that I wish they could recommend some action that regular people like me could take to address some of the problems they talk about,  Or, maybe, there just isn't anything to be done besides the obvious - become obscenely rich and buy some politicians.

[Victor the Crab]

The fake Apple ad at the end where all the Apple engineers go primate made the entire show worthwhile.

[Sharpie66]

I loved the end, when the one guy who was talking throughout the ad was biting the edge of his iPad.

[Danny Franks]

So John, again, summarises what seems like the most complex argument into simple and easily understandable terms, and completely convinces me that he's right. This show should be required viewing for everyone. I mean, I already figured that Apple had valid reasons along the lines of 'if we create this software, it will be used unscrupulously', but having it all spelled out like that really hammers it home.

 

The endless war between hackers and software engineers is something that most people are vaguely aware of, but I think it could be publicised more, and it might actually make idiots realise that an invaluable piece of code that cracks encryption can't just be 'thrown in the fire after it's been used'. 

 

"This is an Apple customer."

"Hey, Ciri. Find vegan sushi."

Heh.

 

Every time I see Lindsey Graham and hear him speak, I am utterly baffled as to how such a silly figure could ever be elected to political office.

 

And why did they not translate "Tag der Kranken" into "Day for the Sick"? Taking the German title seems the strangest choice in a piece about a French speech?

 

 

Probably because 'Tag der Kranken' sounds funnier than whatever the French translation would be. I always thought 'krankenhaus' was an amusing word for hospital, when I was learning German at school.

[cattykit]

After seeing what Drumpf said about boycotting Apple, I'm only sorry I didn't upgrade my iPhone a month ago, because I'd be rushing down to the store to do it now.

 

John's Russian and Southern accents were awesome.

[OneWhoLurks]

A Central Florida Sheriff has threatened to arrest Apple's CEO, should the Cupertino tech giant fail to decrypt an iPhone at his request.

 

[...]

 

"I can tell you, the first time we do have trouble getting into a cell phone, we're going to seek a court order from Apple. And when they deny us, I'm going to go lock the CEO of Apple up," he promised. "I'll lock the rascal up."

 

 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2500747,00.asp

[attica]

Probably because 'Tag der Kranken' sounds funnier than whatever the French translation would be.

 

There was a translation -- the chyron of the speaker tells us it was 'Journee des Malades'. Or, you know, Day of the Ill. They be illin' either way.

[ganesh]

I liked the ad because of the actor from Mad Men.

 

This show should be required viewing for everyone.

 

I've actually had my class watch the piece on the North Dakota fracking along with a PBS news piece (for risk management).

[GHScorpiosRule]

There was just one part where I wasn't laughing. The piece on International Woman's Day where Greta Van Sustren spouted her insulting, unfuckingbelievable, pap. I mean, I saw it...I heard her saying that drivel, and my jaw fell to the floor. Or it felt like it.

 

Otherwise? Another great show. John had me rolling with his impersonation of Graham. Hell, of all of them.

 

John is such a panacea in the sea of madness that is surrounding me.  Since he unearthed it, I think he should always call that asshole Drumpf whenever he talks about him.

[stillshimpy]

I'd already read a very good piece on the Apple Dilemma and had understood most of the implications going into that, but I loved John's piece because it conveyed all that information in a hilarious format.  

 

Does anyone remember John Oliver's piece on TDS where he interviewed the Swiss Ambassador to the United Nations?  There's was a tiny callback to it in the very start of LWT's piece on the Swiss Day of the Sick when he made the war crimes remark.   It starts at about the 5 minutes mark in the clip below if anyone is feeling nostalgic.  

 

Fun show and it was fun to see Harry Crane from Mad Men in the Apple bit :-) 

 

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/2yw54e/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-oliver-s-travels---switzerland

[OneWhoLurks]

According to some of the people who were consulted for the show, John Oliver’s team spent weeks speaking to technology experts and advocates. They reached out to groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Open Technology Institute at New America Foundation, as well as independent experts like Matt Blaze, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who was featured in the episode.

 

A “Last Week Tonight” staffer said that the show consulted the FBI and Justice Department as well.

 

Given Oliver’s conclusions, it wasn’t surprising that the technology community seemed very happy with how the episode turned out. “John Oliver and his team have a track record of distilling complex subjects into easy-to-understand and hilarious explainers, and their recent piece on encryption is no different,” said Ross Schulman, the senior policy counsel at the Open Technology Institute. “It was a complete and accurate analysis of the many reasons backdoors in our devices are a horrible idea.”

 

A spokesperson for the Justice Department wouldn’t comment on the episode.

 

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/can-john-oliver-get-americans-to-care-about-encryption/473667/

[Julia]

There was just one part where I wasn't laughing. The piece on International Woman's Day where Greta Van Sustren spouted her insulting, unfuckingbelievable, pap. I mean, I saw it...I heard her saying that drivel, and my jaw fell to the floor. Or it felt like it.

Oh, Greta van Susteren is a treat, isn't she? There are two things that sort of stick out in my mind with her: she's an absolutely huge fan of Sarah Palin, and when she left her job as a highly-respected Supreme Court reporter to become a Fox bot, part of the deal was a complete facial reconstruction into someone who looks nothing like Greta van Susteren. She talked it up as a big benefit.

It's been kind of horrifying to watch, like dignity and authority are something happily left behind with the signs of human maturity.

Edited March 15, 2016 by Julia

[stillshimpy]

The Greta van Susteren piece was such blatant pandering to the primarily white "traditional" audience and all that "get your female subjugation here, Traditions R Us, don't look too closely folks, these things are barely tamed!" [/circus barker] implies, it was almost like satire.  

 

An author creating a Satirical novel about the American political landscape wouldn't dare include something like that, because on the page it would stand out  as being implausible as hell,  "Oh come on now, really?  National Women's Day aka Aren't Dudes Swell for All the Freedoms they Allow Us Skirts? day.  Let's give the fellas a hand!  Get in that kitchen and bake the big man of yours a cake! Then blow him, because really, you even get to vote!  What a winner you picked!" 

 

Yet, there it was.  It wasn't funny, it was infuriating and exhausting all at once.  

Edited March 15, 2016 by stillshimpy

[Hanahope]

Does Apple have a manual key they can use once a person proves their ID and phone ownership?  Or is the only option to just wipe all data and restore the phone to factory settings?

 

I don't believe so.  I know on my phone, when I first got it, I set up the "restrictions" for something or another, I can't recall.  Anyway, about a year later I wanted to see what I did, see if I really needed whatever I set up and naturally I couldn't remember the code.  I tried 6 times before stopping.  I went online to Apple's support page and was told the only thing I could do was reset it to factor settings, which would lose all data saved, like any games I played that didn't have their own log in information, contacts, calendar, etc.  (because even if I backed up that info and 'redownloaded it, it would redownload whatever restrictions I had previously put in as well as the old code I couldn't remember)  I figured that whatever I had set up for the restrictions wasn't that  important, I  haven't really had any problems with not having access to something (except the restrictions code).  but I do agree its kindof annoying that Apple can't reset the code, or send you an email with a temp or whatever once ownership identity is proved.

 

That's also one thing I heard about on this bit with the San Bernardino case is that the guy's iphone is actually owned by his employer, and the employer had authorized the access to the police.  So the police do have authority to access the phone from the owner, but Apple still can't and won't provide the access, even to the owner.

[OneWhoLurks]

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The Justice Department moved to cancel a Tuesday hearing over whether Apple should be forced to help investigators break into an iPhone used by a gunman in last year’s San Bernardino, Calif., mass shooting, saying it might no longer need Apple’s assistance to extract data from the device.

 

[...]

 

“This could render the whole dispute moot,” said Joseph DeMarco, a former federal prosecutor who file a brief on behalf of law enforcement groups that supported the Justice Department in this case.“The issue at hand is whether the government can use the All Writs Act to force an unwilling third party, Apple, to create a back door. But if it can find a willing third party to break into the phone, then the All Writs Act argument is moot.”

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/technology/apple-fbi-hearing-unlock-iphone.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

 

ETA:

 

Texts, videos, and photos sent through iMessage—anything that appears as a blue bubble on an iPhone—are encrypted in such a way that only the users texting one another can decipher them. Not even Apple can peek at messages as they pass through its servers. (It can, however, read messages that are backed up to iCloud.) But even that system, built by a company whose strong encryption has stymied the FBI, isn’t impenetrable: A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University recently discovered a way to access and decrypt photos and videos sent via iMessage.

 

[...]

 

The researchers, led by Matthew Green of Johns Hopkins’ Information Security Institute, published a paper detailing the exploit on Monday afternoon. Its publication was timed to coincide with Apple’s release of a new version of its operating system that same day. The latest version addresses the vulnerability—but the attack a reminder that digital security is a constant, uphill battle, and that even the best encryption is a far cry from an unbreakable safe.

 

[...]

 

It’s telling that even Apple, a top-tier technology company, needs all the help it can get. In a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver developed a new tagline for Apple: “Join us as we dance madly on the lip of the volcano,” a phrase meant to reflects the frantic reality of keeping up with the latest security holes and vulnerabilities.

 

The title that Green and his colleagues gave their paper? “Dancing on the Lip of the Volcano.”

 

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/a-bug-in-apples-encryption-left-imessages-vulnerable-to-attack/474741/

Edited March 22, 2016 by OneWhoLurks

[OneWhoLurks]

The FBI has managed to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino gunman without Apple's help, ending a court case, the US justice department says.

 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35914195

[OneWhoLurks]

The FBI has cracked the iOS encryption code, and is apparently now ready to share its techniques with other law enforcement agencies.

 

Government officials on Wednesday agreed to assist an Arkansas attorney in unlocking an iPhone and iPod belonging to two teenagers accused of killing a local couple. According to the Associated Press, the feds consented to a request from Faulkner County prosecutor Cody Hiland and the Conway Police Department, which are investigating the murder of Robert and Patricia Cogdell. They were allegedly killed by 18-year-old Hunter Drexler, who the couple raised as their grandson, and 15-year-old Justin Staton.

 

[...]

 

This is probably not the last time law enforcement will request access to phones and tablets, though. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) this week uncovered 63 confirmed cases—most involving drug crimes—in which the government used the All Writs Act to compel Apple and/or Google to assist in accessing data stored on a mobile device.

 

[...]

 

"The FBI wants you to think that it will use the All Writs Act only in extraordinary cases to force tech companies to assist in the unlocking of phones," Sweren-Becker continued. "Turns out, these kinds of orders have actually become quite ordinary."

 

 

http://www.pcmag.com/news/343348/report-fbi-to-unlock-iphone-ipod-linked-to-arkansas-murder

[OneWhoLurks]

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday ordered Apple to help retrieve data for a locked iPhone in a Boston gang case, according to the Boston Herald. And in New York, the government said in a court filing Friday that it will continue to push for an order to force Apple to unlock an iPhone 5 in a case involving a methamphetamine dealer who had pleaded guilty. A magistrate judge had denied the government’s request in February.

 

[...]

 

The renewed push also comes about a month after It also comes after a draft of a bill from Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D, Calif.) and Richard Burr (R., Va.) began circulating online Thursday. It calls for companies to decrypt messages if ordered to do so by a court, effectively making it impossible for the situation where Apple denied the FBI access to be repeated. (The FBI had asked a court to order Apple to write new software that would bypass security protocols on the device.)

 

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-fbi-still-wants-to-get-into-your-iphone-2016-04-08